Ask Alation: AI-Powered Search That Finds Answers, Not Just Results

In today’s enterprises, employees are drowning in data. Dashboards pile up, reports multiply, and even the simplest question — “Which revenue dashboard should I use?” — can turn into a scavenger hunt. 

Traditional search is powerful, but in large organizations, it often delivers too many results. Business users must know how to apply filters, interpret metadata, and validate each result — skills that create friction for anyone unfamiliar with data catalogs.

That’s why we built Ask Alation, an AI-powered search agent designed to make information discovery effortless. Check out the demo here:

Ask Alation accepts questions in plain English, understands intent, automatically applies filters, and returns summarized answers with supporting links. Users can even ask quick follow-ups or clarifications, making the search process conversational instead of transactional.

The result:

• Lower barriers to entry — No need for advanced search skills or complex filters.

• Trusted answers — Clear summaries with links to source assets.

• Transparency — Users can expand results and see how the AI reached its conclusions.

From discovery to action

But discovery is only the beginning. Once you’ve found the right dashboard, the next question is: What can I do with these insights? 

That’s where today’s announcement comes in. With the new Alation Agent Builder, we’re moving from asking questions to taking action.

Agent Builder empowers teams to design their own metadata-powered agents, tailored to their workflows. Instead of simply consuming insights, organizations can now deploy agents that:

• Generate queries

• Recommend visualizations

• Automate reporting

• Orchestrate entire workflows

All governed, explainable, and enterprise-ready.

The next phase of enterprise AI

Over the coming year, we expect to see customers evolve from simple agents for search or query generation into workflow-orchestrating agents that handle end-to-end tasks — from answering questions, to building a visualization, to sharing results in Slack.

This is the rise of agentic data management:

• AI that doesn’t just assist but collaborates

• AI that doesn’t just experiment but scales

• AI grounded in governance and metadata, delivering measurable business impact

With Ask Alation and Agent Builder, enterprises are poised to unlock a new era of trusted, explainable, and actionable AI.

Curious to learn more? Book a demo with us today.